This disclosure refers to various outside documents to aid the reader in understanding the embodiments of the processes, machines, manufactures, compositions of matter, and other teachings of the present disclosure; to enable those of ordinary skill in the art to practice the embodiments of the processes, machines, manufactures, compositions of matter, and other teachings of the present disclosure; and to allow one of ordinary skill in the art to understand the metes and bounds of the embodiments of the processes, machines, manufactures, compositions of matter, and other teachings of the present disclosure. No admission is made that any such document meets any legal definition of “prior art” in any country, and the Applicants reserve the right to demonstrate that any such document meets or fails to meet any legal definition of “prior art” in any country. All such documents are incorporated by reference herein so far as is necessary to enable those of ordinary skill in the art to practice the embodiments of the processes, machines, manufactures, compositions of matter, and other teachings of the present disclosure; and to allow one of ordinary skill in the art to understand the metes and bounds of the embodiments of the processes, machines, manufactures, compositions of matter, and other teachings of the present disclosure.
In the surgical setting, there have been a number of different microscopes designed and sold for ophthalmic surgery. Presently there are no microscopes that deliver two collimated light beams in stereoscopic to the subject surface, e.g., the tissue under examination in a surgical procedure.
Until now microscopes have delivered to the subject surface (1) one or more uncollimated light beams from the objective lens or (2) a single uncollimated light beam below the objective. Routing a parallel light beam through the objective lens transmits a light beam which is not collimated. The illumination system, described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,968 delivered a single uncollimated light beam from a single light source to the subject surface through objective lens (shown as 1 or 1a), wherein FIGS. 1 and 3 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,968 depict the beam to the subject surface passing through an objective lens which is uncollimated. Another illumination system believed to be from the Zeiss Lumera microscope delivered two focused (uncollimated) beams to the subject surface through the objective lens. Another illumination system from the Moller EOS 900 microscope delivered two focused (uncollimated) light beams through the objective lens to the subject surface.
U.S. patent publication 2010/0118549, published May 13, 2010, describes an invention directed toward cataract surgery in which the microscope light reflects from the retina to produce a red reflex, in essence a backlighting of the lens in cataract surgery.
Illumination in retinal surgery is different from that in cataract surgery. In retinal surgery the microscope is equipped with a device for magnifying the retina so that the surgeon sees a large view of the operative site. However, the illumination of the surgical microscope for cataract surgery is not used in retinal surgery. In retinal surgery, a small fiber-optic pic about 1 mm in diameter is inserted through the sclera and into the vitreous body for direct illumination of the retinal surface. The surgeon holds this fiber-optic pic such that light exiting the tip of the fiber-optic pic is directed toward the retinal tissue on which the operating instruments are utilized.